


It's a Thought

by MelyndaR



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22424731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: Zay rested his chin on his hands, admitting, soft and nervous, “I love you guys, too; I’ve known I do since we went to the ski lodge for that school trip.”
Relationships: Farkle Minkus/Isadora Smackle, Isaiah "Zay" Babineaux/Farkle Minkus/Isadora Smackle, Lucas Friar/Maya Hart/Riley Matthews
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	It's a Thought

Somehow, out of all six of them, Farkle and Smackle are the first two to sort their feelings out. They enter high school as deeply in love as any two freshmen can be, with a patient approach to each other and an anthropological, curious outlook on relationships in general.

Which, as it turns out, becomes a pretty invaluable outlook for them to have.

* * *

Isadora reached over, entangling her fingers with Farkle’s as she noted the worry wrinkling his brow. “What’s the matter, beloved?”

Farkle sighed, staring ahead of them as he murmured, “I don’t trust it, I don’t like it, someone is going to get hurt.”

Isadora followed Farkle’s line of sight to where it was flickering from Maya – at the front of the bus, talking to Joshua Matthews – to Lucas and Riley, where they were sitting across the aisle from Farkle and Isadora. Their heads were similarly bent together as they talked, enchanted by one another and enjoying their newly established couple status.

Isadora sighed as well as she saw there what was concerning Farkle. “Perhaps,” she allowed sympathetically. “But, truthfully, they’ve already been hurting over their triangle.”

Farkle ran his thumb over the top of her hand, more of a nervous tick in the moment than any sign of affection. “Yes, but I doubt very much that this will stop anyone’s pain.” His expression darkened even further as he added, “Or the drama.”

Not sure how to help in a way that would alleviate _his_ worry, Isadora put her head on Farkle’s shoulder and squeezed his hand.

“Not that I meant to eavesdrop,” Zay said, twisting to face them from the row in front of them. “And not that it’s helpful, really, but I think Farkle’s right.”

“You are correct in that your statement is unhelpful,” Isadora informed him miserably.

Zay’s frown deepened as he looked between her and Farkle. “Well, hey, we’re the other half of this Maya-Riley-Lucas crew, right? And you two are actual geniuses. We’ll just have to double down on our efforts to help them figure this out, and once it’s all _properly_ sorted, everything will be fine.”

Isadora gave him a kind smile, unsure if she really believed what she was saying even as she replied, “I’m sure you’re right.”

She was not, however, at all certain that it would be that simple.

* * *

As time wore on, Riley and Lucas made it work. They didn’t necessarily get stronger as a couple, from what Isadora could tell, but they stayed together, and they clearly cared about one another. Still, Isadora, Farkle, and Zay all occasionally discussed the triangle dilemma as it not presented itself: Lucas and Riley were happy because they had each other, but Maya was becoming increasingly incapable of disguising her unhappiness with the situation. Which made Riley and Lucas unhappy. Which was exactly in line with how Farkle had predicted this would go.

What they hadn’t predicted – once the dust settled from the Matthews’ London scare – was for their own feelings to get muddled up. Isadora, Farkle, Zay. In trying to spend some time together without the constant air of melodrama that surrounded Maya-Riley-Lucas, Isadora-Farkle-Zay began to occasionally meet up without them.

“Occasionally” in time coming to mean “so often that Zay eventually asked if they even spent time together just as a couple anymore.” They did, they assured him, and it was true. Isadora and Farkle studied together, went to the library together, and, as a couple, did other things Zay would be uninterested in. If he would enjoy it – whatever “it” might be at any given time – why shouldn’t they invite him to do things with them, they asked.

“Because,” Zay pointed out, an unusual uncertainty in his eyes that meant he wasn’t sure why he was being made to explain it. “You two are a couple, and I’m not a part of that.”

It wasn’t often that Isadora’s feelings – and her own instantaneous understanding of them – hit her proverbially between the eyes, especially without talking to someone about her emotions. This time, though, Zay’s declaration was all it took for Isadora to compare and understand her feelings on her own.

She was in a relationship with Farkle.

Zay wasn’t a part of that, which was fine.

But when she compared her feelings for Farkle to her feelings for Zay… somehow, when she hadn’t been paying attention, they had become very similar.

_Was this a triangle? Or worse: just a form of unfaithfulness to Farkle?_

When she’d said she wanted a triangle, this hadn’t been what she’d meant… and she was no longer sure she wanted it. But what was she supposed to do about it now? Usually, she discussed this sort of thing – as with most of her emotions – with Farkle, but she was unsure if it was appropriate in this case.

Ultimately, only two days later, it was Farkle who approached the subject, albeit indirectly. They were sitting on the floor of his bedroom, physics work spread out around them, when he announced, “You’ve been quiet.”

“Have I?” Isadora hummed distractedly, running her finger down the index of a textbook. “Only because I’m trying to find the illustration of the molecular structure of t—”

“No,” Farkle shook his head. “I don’t mean just this evening.” It took him setting aside his book and taking her hand – she started, not expecting the sudden contact – for her to break out of her own concentration and realize he was pausing their work.

He winced at her surprise. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Isadora replied, letting the moment pass with a shake of her head.

Farkle returned to what he was saying before. “You’ve been quiet since we last had dinner with Zay.”

“Have I?” she asked again, purposefully evasive this time.

He narrowed his eyes at her, too good at studying her micro expressions by now. “Yes.” He squeezed her hand, inquiring gently, “Isadora? What is it? There’s something on your mind, my former archnemesis.”

She leaned over on his shoulder, and he put an arm around her. Being held like this wasn’t as strange as it once would’ve been, and it was… easier for her to talk without having to make eye contact. “The question Zay asked us, about you and I being a couple, and his statement that he wasn’t a part of our relationship… it made me think.”

“About what?”

She swallowed roughly before admitting quietly, “How I think I might have feelings for him.”

Farkle paused a beat before asking evenly, “What kind of feelings?”

Isadora hated when he used that tone; she’d come to understand it meant he was purposefully trying to keep her from understanding _his_ feelings on something. She sighed shakily, momentarily irritated with him and herself, until she began to try and explain, and her uncertainty leaked back in. “I… think I love him.”

Farkle nodded slowly, and another long, terrifying moment of silence passed before his chest rose and fell as he also sighed deeply. “I know,” he replied simply.

“What?” Isadora asked in confusion.

“I know you love him,” Farkle repeated calmly. “If you pay attention to what you say, you’ve admitted that – maybe second to me – he makes you feel things more than anyone. And if you pay attention to what _he_ says…” she was in close enough proximity to her boyfriend to hear when he swallowed thickly. “He loves you too.”

Isadora sat up at that, looked at Farkle with wide eyes. “How could you think that?”

Farkle glanced at the books and papers spread around them. “Because I’ve studied you both, I’ve looked at the evidence, and I’ve formed a theory.”

“But I love you!”

Farkle smiled gently, leaned his head atop hers again. “I know you do. I love you, too, very much. But… may I be honest as well?”

“Of course. Always.”

“I… well…”

He was struggling so valiantly that he was nearly frozen, Isadora realized when she sat up and looked at him again. “Farkle?” she pressed softly, taking his hand.

“Is it okay,” he asked nervously. “If maybe I love Zay, too?”

 _Oh. This really was a triangle, wasn’t it, with all the lines neatly connected?_ At least she hoped so. “Yes,” she replied simply. “In fact…” she paused before beginning to think aloud. “If we get… lucky, and if we go about it in the right way, it may even make things easier for us.”

“What makes you think that?” Farkle asked suspiciously.

Isadora hesitated to raise his hopes, and so for now she said only, “That depends on Zay. But I do think we should talk to him and tell him how we feel.”

“Isadora, that will make things way too awkward between him and us.”

 _Fine, perhaps he did need a bit of her hope and optimism on this topic._ “Or,” she pointed out. “It could make things perfect between the three of us.”

Farkle squinted at her, asking, “You think that Zay has feelings for us?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I do know there’s only one way to find out.”

She watched Farkle’s expression change as he came to the conclusion she’d already anticipated. “We do have to talk to him, don’t we?”

“M-hm.”

* * *

“Alright.” The next day, Zay put his game piece back on the Dungeon Masters of Catan board. He leaned back in his chair where they were once again in Farkle’s room, narrowing his eyes across the table at Farkle and Isadora. “Y’all are being weird. What’s the matter with you two?”

Farkle and Isadora sat back, too, glancing at one another to make sure they were each ready for this, before Farkle began, “Nothing’s the _matter_ …”

“We’ve just come to a conclusion,” Isadora tacked on.

“Okay,” Zay prodded them on curiously. “What conclusion?”

Seeing Farkle hesitate, Isadora charged ahead for them instead. “That our feelings for you have recently expanded… beyond friendship.”

Zay stared at them, hard, for a moment before blinking and asking, “What’s that mean?”

“We love you,” Farkle blurted.

“Aww,” Zay grinned easily, so charming in his relaxed way. “I love you guys, too.”

Farkle shook his head, sitting on the edge of his seat. “No, Zay, you don’t understand. We _love_ you.”

Zay blinked again, understanding dawning, and shock with it. “Oh. You mean like Lucas, Riley, and Maya.”

“We hope not,” Isadora replied. “We – I – don’t want that kind of a triangle.”

“Then what do you want?”

Farkle replied nervously, “To know how you feel about us.”

Zay stared again – at Farkle, for a very long and serious moment, with thoughts in his gaze that Isadora couldn’t decipher – before his gaze flickered towards her. “You – you’re both sure you wanna have this conversation?”

“Yes.” Farkle and Isadora nodded.

Zay rested his chin on his hands, admitting, soft and nervous, “I love you guys, too; I’ve known I do since we went to the ski lodge for that school trip.”

“Zay,” Isadora murmured, her eyebrows drawing together.

Farkle asked the question she was thinking. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Zay spread his hands, talking with them, too, as he spoke. “Because you guys are and always have been a perfectly stable, in-love couple. Why would I get involved in a way that might mess that up?”

“What if we want you to mess it up?” Farkle asked carefully.

“What?” Isadora and Zay asked together.

Farkle smiled softly, reaching out to Isadora across the table. She took his hand as he explained, “We have a great relationship; we don’t need to… fix anything in our relationship… but what if our relationships could be made better – by adding you to it, Zay? We don’t want to fix anything, but we do want to add to what we have, and if that ‘messes with things, if it changes us, then I’m okay with that. Does that make sense?”

Isadora considered that before she nodded. “It makes sense,” she promised Farkle. Looking at Zay, she added, “And I’m okay with it, too. If you are?”

It took Zay longer to process what they were saying again, and Farkle and Isadora sat, waiting, perfectly willing to give him whatever time he needed. Farkle was holding her hand tighter than he meant to, though, Isadora knew, until Zay said, “I think I’d be okay with that, too.”

“Really?” Farkle asked hopefully, to which Zay nodded. Still, Farkle double-checked, “Both of us, you mean?”

“Of course, both of you,” Zay answered easily, moving his chair closer to Farkle’s.

Underneath the table, Zay sought out Farkle’s hand, intertwining their fingers in a careful, exploring movement. “Awesome,” Farkle breathed as Zay took Isadora’s free hand on the tabletop.

“Yeah,” Isadora agreed. “Definitely awesome.”

* * *

“Hey, Lucas?” Zay leaned back against the wall of Riley’s bedroom, staring up at the ceiling as he asked a few days later, “Do you wanna hear something crazy?”

“Sure…” Lucas replied carefully from where he was sitting in the bay window between Riley and Maya.

Zay glanced at Farkle and Isadora, where they were sitting together on the edge of Riley’s bed, and Isadora reached out, as did Farkle, to help Zay to his feet as they realized what he meant to say next. Zay moved onto his feet, taking their hands and sitting on the edge of the bed between them as he asked his oldest friend, “Do you remember Philip Pryor, back in Texas?”

Lucas got a careful look in his eyes as he replied, “Yeah… of course.”

“Who’s Philip Pryor?” Riley asked.

Isadora was prepared for the answer, since it was something Zay had told her and Farkle about during the long conversation they’d had, just getting to know one another better the night before. “My first ex,” Zay replied carefully, watching Riley and Maya for adverse reactions that Isadora was almost _entirely_ certain they weren’t going to give him. Seeing no issues forthcoming, Zay’s gaze flickered back to Lucas as he continued, “Philip and I… ran into bullies – a lot – back in Texas. Helping us deal with some of those bullies is what got Lucas in such big trouble that one time, and _that_ particularly bad incident is what drove Philip and I apart, among some other things. Turns out it’s pretty hard to be bi in a small, Texas town.”

“You guys, that’s so awful!” Riley said, her eyes going wide. “I’m so sorry, Zay.”

Maya looked at Lucas for a long, silent moment until she elbowed him gently, saying, “I’m proud of you, Huckleberry.”

Lucas smiled uncertainly, until Farkle looked at him and pointed out, “You know you could’ve told us that ages ago, right? Instead of making this Texas… mistake a big deal?”

Lucas shrugged. “It wasn’t my story to tell, really.”

“Well,” Riley took his hand, smiling cheerfully. “Now we know. And we love you just as much for it.”

Lucas spared Riley an adoring glance before he asked Zay, “What about Philip?”

“I’m doing it again,” Zay said, a statement that made very little sense even with the context they’d all been given.

“What do you mean?” Lucas asked. “You have a boyfriend again?”

“I do,” Zay replied on a shaky breath. His hand was trembling in Isadora’s, in a way that made her wonder just how bad things had been for him in Texas.

“But this is New York,” she reminded him. “Things won’t be as bad here.”

“Not by a long shot,” Maya chimed in.

“Not even if my boyfriend has a girlfriend, too, and she’s also my girlfriend now? How’s that gonna go over?”

There was a beat of confused silence, then Isadora saw the light hit Maya’s eyes as she looked at the way Zay was holding Farkle’s and Isadora’s hands, and she _got_ it. “As long as the people who love you still love you, and it makes you happy, who cares what the world says? I still say it won’t be as bad here, but even if it is, we still love you, and, if we need to, we will protect you. Right, Lucas? Riley?”

Lucas was silent for only a second too long, processing, before he affirmed, “Right. Absolutely.”

Riley looked giddy with excitement for them as she said, “That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you three!”

Farkle smiled at her. “Thank you, Riley.” Farkle turned carefully studious eyes to Lucas and Maya as he asked, “Are you happy for us?”

“We’re happy if you’re happy,” Lucas said simply, and Maya nodded her agreement to the sentiment.

“You are happy, aren’t you, Farkle?” Riley asked, watching him.

“Yes, of course. Why?”

“Because you don’t look _happy_ …”

“You look _thoughtful_ ,” Maya supplied, watching Farkle closely now also. “What’s on your mind, Farkley?”

Farkle looked down at his and Zay’s joined hands, then over at Isadora’s and Zay’s, keeping his gaze downward as he said thoughtfully, “Hey, face?”

“Yeah, genius?” Lucas asked expectantly.

Farkle met Lucas’ gaze, and even Isadora was surprised by the seriousness in his eyes. “It’s not hard, you know, to love them both equally.”

Isadora noted Riley and Maya both freeze as Lucas smiled tightly and replied, “I do know that, yes. You know I know that.”

Farkle nodded thoughtfully, pointing out, “I also know that they have both said that they wanted to be… what was it, ‘girlfriend equally as much?’”

“It was, yes,” Lucas agreed, staring straight at Farkle because, Isadora thought, he might yet be a little too afraid to look at either Riley or Maya.

“Huh,” Riley said thoughtfully, watching Lucas.

Maya was suddenly watching Riley with an intensity that actually made Zay catch his breath beside Isadora. “Aw, honey nuggets,” she heard him breathe.

Then Riley’s gaze slid past Lucas so that she locked eyes with Maya, and it was Maya, not Lucas at all, who admitted aloud, “It’s a thought.”

Lucas looked between them in sudden surprise, and Isadora, Farkle, and Zay all watched as a slow smile began to slide across his face – and Riley’s and Maya’s, too. “Yeah, I guess it is, isn’t it?”

“In our experience,” Isadora promised them. “It’s really a great one.”


End file.
